{"id":1033,"date":"2013-05-23T18:56:05","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T17:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/?p=449"},"modified":"2023-05-17T07:59:14","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T06:59:14","slug":"would-somebody-please-turn-the-lights-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/would-somebody-please-turn-the-lights-on","title":{"rendered":"Would somebody please turn the lights on?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I heard a famous quote once that said, \u201ceach child is potentially the light of the world, and at the same time its darkness\u201d.\u00a0 What determines whether a child will follow a path towards lightness and potential or a path towards darkness?\u00a0 I believe it is the role of parents and teachers to guide children towards the path of goodness.\u00a0 But what if that child has neither parents nor teachers?\u00a0 Who then will steer them in the right direction?<\/h4>\n

As a rule, I usually make it a point not to give handouts to street kids.\u00a0 In Canada, I justify that rule with the fact that we have so many social programs in place.\u00a0 Here, I don\u2019t like that people look at Mzungus as walking banks, but then I remind myself that, here, there are no social programs in place.\u00a0 The only option when you\u2019re hungry is to hit the streets and put yourself at the mercy of others.\u00a0 I have maintained this practice of zero handouts throughout my entire time in Tanzania and it has taken me a long time to earn love and respect for what I do and not for what I have.\u00a0<\/strong> However, I have recently made an exception with Anderson, a local Arusha street kid who is a part of the \u201cclock tower crew\u201d.\u00a0 The clock tower is the central part of town where you are most likely to be bombarded by street touts like Anderson who earn a few shillings by coaxing you into the office of a safari company.\u00a0 Anderson is 17, or so he says<\/em>.\u00a0 His English is quite good as it has to be.\u00a0 He hustles safaris to tourists and must be able to talk the talk.\u00a0 He has learned his English on the streets.<\/p>\n\"Shannon\n

I\u2019ve slackened my no giving rule, and each time I see him, I feed him and ask him a few more questions about his life, his living situation, his reality.\u00a0 His parents died when he was young\u2026he can\u2019t remember when, and something about an older brother and sister living away and not caring.\u00a0 At the end of the day, the street kids get together and go to sleep\u2026somewhere.\u00a0 He wants to be a doctor.\u00a0 And why, of all the street kids in Arusha, has Anderson so effectively captured my heart?\u00a0<\/strong> He has never asked me for anything<\/strong>, and each time he greets me with warm wide eyes and a big smile despite his reality of living in poverty with a hungry tummy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking about the logistics of getting involved with a kid like Anderson.\u00a0 What if this is a mistake?\u00a0 Can I find a school that will take him?\u00a0 He will need to be taken off the streets and be put in full boarding in order to have any hope of academic success.\u00a0 Can I do that?\u00a0 Endless scenarios of what could go wrong run through my head.\u00a0 But really, what could go wrong for Anderson already has.\u00a0 So, do I choose to be the someone<\/span><\/i> who can help steer him towards his potential as the light of the world?\u00a0 In<\/strong> my mind, it\u2019s not a choice but rather a responsibility.\u00a0 Maybe he\u2019s the next President of Tanzania, maybe he will become that doctor that he so wants to be<\/strong> or maybe he will be taken off the streets for a short time, shown a glimmer of a different life and then return to life on the street.\u00a0 I need to know that at least I tried, and that he was given the opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n\"students-with-water\"\n

Imagine yourself living without electricity, and for those of you familiar with east coast Canadian winters, that is not too much of a stretch.\u00a0 What would you expect the most difficult thing to be?\u00a0 No television perhaps for those of you hooked on your weekly sitcoms?\u00a0 Perhaps it would be not having lights to go about your nightly routine.\u00a0 Or not being able to prepare gourmet meals hassle free on the shiny stove-top would be enough to leave you starving.\u00a0 I bathe each night in a basin by candlelight using approximately 1\u00bd – 2 liters of water.\u00a0 Try it sometime!<\/em>\u00a0 If I am tired I won\u2019t bother to heat the water but will endure the cold water washing with gritted teeth.\u00a0 When I do take time to heat the water on the kerosene burner, it is so worthwhile.\u00a0 I take my time, first sticking my face in, and saving my dirty feet for last.\u00a0 Sometimes I will make an attempt at washing my hair although usually my efforts are futile.\u00a0 I understand now why everyone here, men and women, boys and girls all have shaved heads.\u00a0 It simply makes more sense.<\/em><\/p>\n

For me, however, it\u2019s not even the lack of a hot bath in my tub that I find the most challenging.\u00a0 It\u2019s the lack of refrigeration that has taken the most getting used to.\u00a0 Think about it for a minute; how many times you go to the refrigerator in the run of a day? Too numerous to count?\u00a0 Now imagine not having that luxury and how it would change your lifestyle.\u00a0 No preparing food on Monday for the busy week ahead.\u00a0 No stocking up on those sale days at the grocery store and filling the freezer for god knows when.\u00a0 No microwave dinners to take care of that gnawing hunger pang.\u00a0 No ice cream, or dairy for that matter and oh god\u2026no cheese!\u00a0 It certainly takes some adjustments but essentially you end up eating freshly cooked food each day<\/strong> as you are forced to (or else go hungry).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not complaining though as I am lucky enough to have food to prepare.\u00a0 Approximately 820 million people in the world are undernourished, concerned more about where their next meal will come from rather than a cold place to store the excess.\u00a0 Suddenly, a refrigerator doesn\u2019t seem that important after all.<\/em><\/p>\n\"Shannon\n

Wiki njema;
\nAmani na shikamoo
\nShannon<\/p>\n

Shannon Howlett is a teacher based in Canada, and the article\u00a0above is taken from a collection of weekly stories that she posted to friends, family, and those who became interested through word of mouth about her year in Tanzania (2008) as a volunteer teacher in a Maasai village.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I heard a famous quote once that said, \u201ceach child is potentially the light of the world, and at the same time its darkness\u201d. What determines whether a child will follow a path towards lightness and potential or a path towards darkness? I believe it is the role of parents and teachers to guide children towards the path of goodness. But what if that child has neither parents nor teachers? Who then will steer them in the right direction?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[854],"tags":[982,978],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Krhd-gF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1033"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13210,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions\/13210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teacherhorizons.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}